I again did not run anything at DunDraCon in 2015, but I went all three days.
Friday 6 PM in 570 for 6 hr
System: L.A.R.P.S. System; 25 players
Genre: Fantasy
Costume: Fantasy Medieval/Historical/Roman/Finery
Troupe: Lydia Has a Posse
LARP Experience: Useful
Game Content: Mature Themes
Representatives congregate to determine who gets exploration rights to a newly discovered Dwemer ruin bordering The Pale, Winterhold, and Eastmarch. Familiarity with Skyrim/Elder Scrolls is recommended but not required.
This was a larp set in the background from the Elder Scrolls series of computer games, specifically set in Skyrim. I played an Imperial mercenary (and former gladiator) named Terminus.
Friday 9 PM in Salon FG for 6 hr
Costume: Cartoons and children's shows
Troupe: Spontaneous Combustion!
LARP Experience: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mature Themes
Players: 40
It's Karaoke Night in Cartoon Hell, and the Damned gather in hopes of winning their freedom from The Immortal Judges. Walk-ins welcome throughout the scheduled time, no participation required.
This was a themed karaoke night, carrying on a tradition. Most people weren't dressed up except for the organizer's amazing Skeletor costume - and Lauren's terrific Jessica Rabbit outfit and song.
Saturday 10 AM in Salon AB for 8 hr
Type: LARP
Players: 30
System: New World of Darkness: Requiem for Rome
Variations: Card-based rules conversion
Genre: Horror
Costume: Ancient Rome, togas, tunics
Troupe: Bedlam's Requiem
Game Content: Mature Themes
LARP Experience: Useful
53 BCE: Caesar's and Pompey's agents clash, the Senate burns, martial law is declared. Many kindred are lost to the flames and chaos. Can the Camarilla survive?
This was the first time I'd played in a Camarilla larp for many years - which I gave a try at. From my usual tastes, it was very mechanics heavy. I had a stack of nearly two dozen printed index cards as well as several pages. Further, the competitive side of play was very evident - particularly in that a number of players clearly used out-of-character information in attacking. I played a demon-summoning traitor to my ostensible clan, and my conspiracy was pretty well shut down by
Saturday 6 PM in 570 for 8 hr
Players: 10
System: Card Draw
Genre: Cyberpunk
Costume: Cyberpunk, goth, punk, post-apocalyptic, industrial, geek chic, business, professional
GM: Samantha Smith
LARP Experience: Useful
Game Content: Mature Themes
A cyberpunk game of intrigue, corporate espionage, organlegging, augmentation, and wetware. Expect to lie, cheat, hack, and backstab your way out of a situation that's about as bad as any you've gotten into before. Even among the fraternity of dataphreaks, friends are hard to come by. In this room, you don't have any.
And the Corp is watching.
An intriguing small larp that was more reminiscent of cyberpunk literature than action themes.
Sunday 10 AM in 570 for 6 hr
Players: 20
System: Rumor Mill
Genre: Murder mystery/Western/Steampunk
Costume: Mid to Late 19th century wear
Troupe: The Ace of Geeks
LARP Experience: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
Someone has committed a murder on a westbound train. The murder must be on the train, so it is up to you to figure out whodunnit!
A steampunk Western game, with secret fantasy elements. I played a well-educated black freeman (Tatenda Smith) in this 1880s mystery larp. At first there was a period of social interaction, with the slimy senator DeVille who was on a campaign tour. The senator was murdered a little over a third of the way into play time. At that point, there was a set of mechanics to get clue cards, which would work toward the solution to the mystery.
Tatenda Smith grew up on a plantation, but was raised like a son by his master Jeremiah Smith (for the obvious reason that he was). He was well-educated in science, and in fact was a proclaimed atheist. As it turned out, this was shot to hell since the scenario included magic and demons. My closest connections were the other non-white characters, Wu Tai and Elizabeth/Thaddeus Johnson.
There was a detailed backstory to the murder, with specific details like the scream at 1:00 am, and the details of the scene (pool of vomit by the bathroom door, singed black book on the nightstand). After that, we each had one investigation action - which could get a murder clue, or a page from the Senator's black book (personal secrets of other PCs). However, we had to leave a personal clue. The clue cards included a bunch of incomplete details like "There is no blood around the body"; "Senator was complaining of headaches all day"; along with book secrets like "I know that ... is a demon trapped in a human body" or "I know that ... is the Senator's gay lover"; plus personal cards like "... confirmed bachelor and dandy"; and "... doesn't want a male suitor".
There was also a supernatural element, though my character had no supernatural. Characters included the demon Ch'ail Arres posing as the senator's ten-year-old child. The supernatural element made working out the solution to the murder essentially impossible for me. There was no way to
There was a supernatural element to the mystery - which made working on the solution difficult in general - and particularly for my character who didn't believe in the supernatural.
Sunday 4 PM in 334 for 6 hr
System: FATE (Mecha vs. Kaiju)
Players: 6
GM: Johnathan Wright
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Family
All characters provided by GM
When the city is threatened by sinister Ogres and their monstrous kaiju, six young people from all walks of life unite to form the SUPER SENTEI SQUAD!
This was a teen game that I played in with my son Milo, in a particular genre of anime that I wasn't very familiar with. I played a token Westerner in the game - with the pre-built archetype of Okasan (Mother Figure). I picked a "Tough Love" Engineer as the high concept to match this. His name was Matt Mason, nicknamed "Mama", and he was a red-bearded mechanic. I didn't note down the others.
The group of us ended up confronting a biker gang disrupting a festival, with a fight by a performance stage. This escalated into seeing who was behind the ogres that appeared - until we formed our magical giant robot to fight off the giant attacker. It was good fun.
A good convention overall, though I resolve to be more selective in my games in the future.